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Old 05-23-2007, 10:12 AM     #1
Frederik S
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System Specs

Bigfoot Networks KillerNIC M1

To read this review go to: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/B.../KillerNIC_M1/

Please Digg the review to help us promote it.

Last edited by W1zzard; 06-18-2007 at 07:04 AM.
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Old 06-18-2007, 09:41 AM     #2
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Why did u measure FPS?

And ur ping is 5ms?? My ping never gets below 250ms in any game.. maybe u dont need that thing.
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Old 06-18-2007, 10:06 AM     #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bret View Post
Why did u measure FPS?
Mostly because Killer targets this towards gamers. They claim better fps and ping in their advertising.
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Old 06-18-2007, 10:22 AM     #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bret View Post
Why did u measure FPS?

And ur ping is 5ms?? My ping never gets below 250ms in any game.. maybe u dont need that thing.
As it said in the review, the KillerNIC does all the work for the network instead of the CPU. This frees up CPU usage so that it can be used for the game and not for the network. That extra CPU means he can get more FPS. As for the 5ms ping, he's playing on a local network.

Although the idea of having a "slave Linux computer" do my PC's bidding sounds amazing, I don't think I can justify the price. Then again, there are people out there who will buy Quad-Core Xeons and Quad-SLI 8800 Ultras as soon as they hit the market just so they can play FEAR and HL2 200 FPS higher than their refresh rate.

I've seen the KillerNICs out for a while, but it's interesting to see some benchmarks popping up. I wonder why they opted for a mini-Linux brew and not just some super-dedicated hardware. It seems like that'd be cheaper and more efficient.
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Old 06-18-2007, 11:03 AM     #5
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I wonder if the difference is noticeable on dual core systems as well. With another core that can handle the networking the Killer NIC could just be an expensive alternative to dual core.
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Old 06-18-2007, 11:13 AM     #6
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Originally Posted by DanTheBanjoman View Post
I wonder if the difference is noticeable on dual core systems as well. With another core that can handle the networking the Killer NIC could just be an expensive alternative to dual core.
Good point. I'd imagine that most games take advantage of Dual-Core machines now-a-days, don't they? I know Valve was looking in to it quite extensively.
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Old 06-18-2007, 11:32 AM     #7
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Well if you take a look at the other reviews of the KillerNIC on the web there are tests done on dual and quad core systems. With some remarkable results.
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Old 06-18-2007, 12:59 PM     #8
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I read that this card creates a handicap if web browsing. Did you notice any slow ups when web browsing?
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Old 06-18-2007, 01:04 PM     #9
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There is no way this card is worth the price, it is just a high priced packet scheduler. Any good $15 PCI NIC will give roughly the same results by taking a small load off the CPU. Either way, the difference isn't noticeable, or at least not worth $220.
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Old 06-18-2007, 01:05 PM     #10
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I couldn't feel a difference. I have SpeedFox for Firefox installed and all of the page load times with and with out where aboue the same. So there might be small difference, but it ain't something you can "feel" while browsing.
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Old 06-18-2007, 01:10 PM     #11
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Great thanks for the info. I also read that this network card works best for a mid-low ranger computer.
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Old 06-18-2007, 01:32 PM     #12
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The more the CPU bottlenecks the computer, the better performance you're going to see. That's at least what I assume. That's probably why the maximum frame rate didn't change. The CPU was no longer the bottleneck for that specific scene, but the GPU (or maybe VSync) was. If the CPU can keep up with the GPU and deal with the network at the same time with cycles to spare, offloading to extra hardware is only going to give you even more (useless) spare cycles.
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Old 06-18-2007, 02:18 PM     #13
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It does help, but the negligible difference doesnt justify the $250.00 price tag. Of course, I know a few who have it just so they can frag some asses in CSS and other games ::Shrug:
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Old 06-18-2007, 02:34 PM     #14
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Yeah.. That's pretty much it. It's a network card for people who absolutely require the best (and can afford it).

Unless you want it for the heatsync. I heard it lights up. How hard is it to make your own heatsync?
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Old 06-18-2007, 02:43 PM     #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EastCoasthandle View Post
Great thanks for the info. I also read that this network card works best for a mid-low ranger computer.
But if you have a mid-low range computer, why not spend the $220+ on something more useful, like a better processor?
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Old 06-18-2007, 02:48 PM     #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xvi View Post
Yeah.. That's pretty much it. It's a network card for people who absolutely require the best (and can afford it).

Unless you want it for the heatsync. I heard it lights up. How hard is it to make your own heatsync?
Actually I do see a market for it amongst modders. It's a complete system basically, with an USB disk you could do some fun stuff with it.
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Old 06-18-2007, 03:18 PM     #17
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but there are cheaper and smaller ways to get a tiny linux system

btw dan, what happened to those thin clients you wanted to send me ?
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Old 06-18-2007, 05:18 PM     #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newtekie1 View Post
There is no way this card is worth the price, it is just a high priced packet scheduler. Any good $15 PCI NIC will give roughly the same results by taking a small load off the CPU. Either way, the difference isn't noticeable, or at least not worth $220.
+1. Maximum PC's review said the same thing and gave it a very bad rating.
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Old 06-18-2007, 09:25 PM     #19
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Nice but umm..



The lowest ping you can have in CS:S is 5... try playing and testing the Killer NIC over internet gameplay instead of LAN.
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Old 06-19-2007, 02:06 AM     #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by W1zzard View Post
but there are cheaper and smaller ways to get a tiny linux system

btw dan, what happened to those thin clients you wanted to send me ?
The hospital I work for is selling about 100 thin clients, might be hard to get them to Germany though.
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Old 06-19-2007, 02:12 AM     #21
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waste of teh monay
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Old 06-19-2007, 02:29 AM     #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newtekie1 View Post
There is no way this card is worth the price, it is just a high priced packet scheduler. Any good $15 PCI NIC will give roughly the same results by taking a small load off the CPU. Either way, the difference isn't noticeable, or at least not worth $220.
I too would like to see a comparison of a REAL NIC instead of an onboard one.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Bret View Post
Why did u measure FPS?

And ur ping is 5ms?? My ping never gets below 250ms in any game.. maybe u dont need that thing.
Did you even read the article and understand what it does?
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Old 06-19-2007, 09:45 AM     #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JacKz5o View Post
Nice but umm..



The lowest ping you can have in CS:S is 5... try playing and testing the Killer NIC over internet gameplay instead of LAN.
That's over the internet! I played on a Danish FFA server. I have 100Mbit/s internet connection.
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Old 06-19-2007, 10:59 AM     #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by W1zzard View Post
but there are cheaper and smaller ways to get a tiny linux system

btw dan, what happened to those thin clients you wanted to send me ?
Made a tower of them in my room, I can make a picture of the tower if you want.
I got 9 now, 1 seems defective so far. I'll test them quickly this week and ship you 2-3 this weekend. Whenever I'm near a postal office while it's open. Talk to me on MSN later about it.
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Old 06-19-2007, 05:28 PM     #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frederik S View Post
That's over the internet! I played on a Danish FFA server. I have 100Mbit/s internet connection.
Wow lol.

Well like I said, CS:S never goes under 5 so you should have tried playing on a server further away.

Still a great review though.
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